VAGUE SPACE

Bill's Post-Surgery Movie Guide

So one of the advantages / disadvantages of being largely immobile and housebound for the last 12 weeks is that I've had a lot of time to not only read (advantage) but also to watch a lot of television (disadvantage) and catch up on a bunch of movies that came out in 2010 and 2011 that I hadn't seen.  Some have been really really good.  Some have been just mediocre.  But for the most part, anything that could occupy up to 2 hours of my time and distract my mind enough from the mind-numbing pain in my foot was (is) a good thing.  Anyway, here's a list of movies I've seen in order of recommendation.

Drive (2011)

Ryan Gosling stars as "Driver," an unnamed stunt-car driver who does side jobs for criminals including getaway driver for a bank heist in the opening scene.  Gosling's character exudes a calm coolness but other than his incredible driving ability, he doesn't particularly appear to be out of the ordinary, definitely not a violent or criminal kind (despite his part-time vocation).  And the opening third or so of the movie runs kind of slow, focusing on the taciturn Driver and his growing affection for a new neighbor, played by the beautiful Carey Mulligan (who can turn any role into a charmer), and her young son.  But when Mulligan's husband gets out of jail, things turn upside down and the movie starts to pick up speed.  And all of a sudden -- well, I dare not reveal anything else for fear of spoiling what is just a non-stop amazing, action-packed thrill-ride of a second half that transforms Gosling's character from quiet everyman into -- something else.  I'm not sure I cared for the ending, because it felt unnecessary, but otherwise this is a really great film... slow to start and not really hyped very well but pretty much every guy in my readership will enjoy it.  It's definitely got a Tarantino vibe to it, not in the dialogue at all, but in the spirit of it all, underplayed by Gosling but perfectly played.  Oh, and Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston and Ron Perlman are all pretty damn awesome in supporting roles.

New Music Tuesday

Ever since Megaupload and a whole host of other file-sharing (or, some may say, "stealing") sites got shut down, my access to leaked full albums of yet-to-be-released records has dried up.  I'm sure there are other ways to find them now but I haven't really looked, so lately I've been reduced to listening to new music the way I did a few years ago -- by downloading single songs off sites like mine and waiting for an album to be released to hear it, off the physical CD copy, or preferrably, via the pre-order MP3 from the label's website.  That's how I first heard the first two tracks on today's post, the first when I actually received Shearwater's Animal Joy in the mail -- yes, the postal mail (who would have thought they still existed!), and the second via a pre-order MP3.  Animal Joy has been largely a pure joy, full of several great tracks and solid throughout, vintage Jonathan Meiburg, although short of the promise that the first leaked track -- the stunning "You as You Were" hinted at.  But it is very strong, maybe his best conceived album yet, and I can't wait to see him live again.  The opening track on the album is also rather brilliant.  Take a listen.

• Download Shearwater - "Animal Life".mp3

Xiu Xiu's latest album Always also features several strong tracks and is available now for download and/or physical CD (I pre-ordered and got both).  I love this song:

• Download Xiu Xiu - "Beauty Towne".mp3

Funny

I don't have a new post today but I thought this picture was pretty funny.  

Random Music Friday

Song:  "There are Some Remedies Worse than the Disease"
Artist:  This Will Destroy You
Year:  2006
Album:  Young Mountain

 

• Download This Will Destroy You - "There Are Some Remedies Worse Than the Disease".mp3

I saw the doctor yesterday, 11 weeks after my toe surgery, and I'm definitely no better and for the first time, he showed some concern that I was still having pain -- and this specific type of pain -- and cautioned that there's a chance I suffered nerve damage from the surgery, or "low-grade" RSD, which based on my quick Internet research (and my friend whose sister is a nurse) is just about the worst thing that could have happened short of death, well that and the bone not fusing all the way.  Which it hasn't.  I do start physical therapy this morning and there is some hope that will help with the pain, and the doctor still thinks the bone will fuse eventually and is not too concerned that it isn't yet fused at 11 weeks.  Based on other stories, 3 to 3 1/2 months is not uncommon for this type of surgery and I'm a few weeks away from that.  And for a few days this week, including yesterday morning, the foot did feel much better than it had been.  Of course, I was resting it intensively and not doing much on it and any extensive walking or driving still hurt.  So the short story is I still have to wait, we can't know if the fusion was unsuccessful yet so we can't know if the pain and complications are still part of the healing/ fusion process or something else.  The long story is I've probably never been this upset in my life and I realize now (well, I've realized this for weeks) that I never should have had this surgery... I'm not yet at the pain level I was at before the surgery and I would do anything just to get back to that level, let alone be completely pain free, which seems like a 100-to-1 shot at this point.  All over a fucking toe.  So yeah, this isn't really a "random" music post and I wish I had better news.  I wish I were writing about my new MacBook Pro laptop that I'm writing this on but I'm not really in the mood to celebrate anything.  And I'm still on Percocet for the pain at night so I can't even get drunk to forget about this all.  Hopefully the physical therapy helps, at least a little.  That's really all I've got at this point.

 

Makers

It's been a couple years since I read Cory Doctorow's Makers, and I don't remember the plot entirely but I do know there were several plots taking place over the course of 20 years or so in the near future and things start with the widespread use of 3D printers to make products and conclude with people living in shantytowns while nostalgic rides are built in empty Wal-marts by these now discarded 3D printers that helped to, basically, destroy the world.  What the novel was about - largely - was technological innovation and invention and the boom-and-bust business world that takes advantage of it, but the device at the heart of these particular innovations and the eventual collapse of our economy is what fascinated me the most.  So it was with some surprise that I saw on the front page of USA Today's Money section an article about the growth of 3D printers.  And nowhere in the article is any mention of the downside of this growth.  But I will address the issue here.  Is the end really near?

Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism

From 2003... It's not hard to see the exact connection between this list and current conservative Republican orthodoxy but I've highlighted the most obvious examples.  It's pretty shocking.

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20):

 

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.  Editors' Note:  Remember the Flag Pin Debate?  The "Mission Accomplished" banner.  The very existence of Fox News graphics.  This is on page 1 of modern Republicanism.

 

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.  Editors' Note:  OK, Obama hasn't exactly closed Guantanamo.  But he did act to end torture as a national policy, which was instituted for the first and only time in American history by the last Republican regime.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.  Editors' Note:  That's pretty much on page 2 of the modern Republican handbook.

Is It Time to Worry About the Orange?

Syracuse is now 27-1 on the season and 14-1 in the Big East after winning at Rutgers on Sunday by a final score of 74-64, matching the point spread exactly in a sloppy game that was within 2 to 6 points for almost its entirety until Scoop Jardine hit a crushing 3-pointer late and the Orange held on to win at the RAC.  I was at the game, in the handicapped section because I'm still having severe unending pain in my surgically "repaired" foot and I was wearing the boot, and it wasn't pretty.  Neither the play of the Orange or me limping around the RAC in a boot.  I know Rutgers plays tough at home regardless of their record and we've often struggled to win there through the years, regardless of how good we are, and they executed very well on offense, particularly inside, but still... we barely beat 12-14 Rutgers.  Is it time to worry? They spent all game pumping it into their big white guy -- #55 -- who was scoring at will and with ease whenever he was on the floor, which fortunately was not much at the end of the game as he was suffering from cramps or dehydration or something and kept having to go to the locker room in the last 10 minutes of the contest.  Which might be why the Cuse held on to win.  And when you are being destroyed by Gilvydas Biruta, you are probably not exactly ready to make the Final Four.  So that's disappointing.  And for a team that seemed on a roll toward history for most of the season, things have gotten derailed quite a bit since Fab Melo first missed a game at Notre Dame (and the team got its first loss).  They've kept winning, but it's been ugly, and with the exception of last Saturday's game against UConn, I haven't once felt this was one of the best teams in the nation.  Before Fab went out with "academic issues", I never had those doubts.  Fab's back now.  And playing great (although not on Sunday, on defense).  So what the hell has happened to this team?

Random Music Friday

Song:  "Drown"
Artist:  Smashing Pumpkins
Year:  1992
Album:  Singles Soundtrack

• Download Smashing Pumpkins - "Drown".mp3

According to Wikipedia, this song was a minor alternative  hit in 1992, peaking at #24 on the alternative radio charts, but in 1992, pre-Siamese Dream, I'm not sure I knew of the band.  Although I would come to love Gish probably more than their chart-topping mainstream success that was Siamese Dream, I'm almost positive I didn't own it until after 1993, when I became, briefly, a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan.  It didn't last very long -- I convinced myself I liked the bloated double album Mellon Collie but they definitely lost me with 1998's Adore to the point that I don't really listen to them anymore, not even the old tracks on Gish or Pisces Iscariot that I used to listen to rather nonstop in 1994.  Which brings me to "Drown".  Back in pre-Internet days, we discovered music largely through something called the "radio", and I remember hearing "Drown" on the radio, it had to be after Siamese Dream because otherwise I wouldn't have really known the band, and I know I hit "record" on the cassette tape I used to have on my stereo cued up so I could tape any song on the radio I hadn't heard but might like.  I know it sounds primitive now, but that's how we discovered new songs, and that's how we played music, particularly when we were younger and didn't have any cash to buy CDs.  And I distinctly remember having "Drown" on a mixtape, minus the first 5 or 10 seconds, from a radio recording -- probably after the DJ said something like "here's a track from Smashing Pumpkins that you may not have heard."  And I hadn't.  And I freaking loved it.  Probably as much or more than any track on Siamese Dream.  But for at least a year or more, the only time I ever heard that song was that single radio appearance and on the cassette I fortunately caught the track on.  By then, I'd bought Gish and the B-sides and outtakes collection Pisces Iscariot, but it wasn't on them, it wasn't on anything they'd released as far as I could tell and again, pre-Wikipedia, pre-Internet days, I had no idea where to find this magical, wonderful hidden track by my one of my favorite bands at the time.

The Fault in Our Stars

Cancer books normally scare me off.  Hell, I bought this novel based on my previous love for John Green's writing and rave reviews for his latest and I still didn't want to read it once I had it home.  Even though every review said it isn't really a cancer book, it isn't sad or maudlin or depressing.  But still:  Cancer book.  Who wants to read that?  Well I'm glad I did and I'm here now to try to convince you to do the same.  This is an amazing book.  I recommend it highly.

The narrator is a 16-year-old girl named Hazel and she's got cancer.  Terminal cancer of some form that is described in minor detail that I won't bore you with now.  But Hazel is funny.  Not like laugh-out-loud funny but full-on sarcastic, I'm going to die but I'm cool with it and the world kind of sucks, funny.  You know, funny.  She's an incredibly appealing narrator who becomes even moreso when she meets Augustus, a cancer kid in remission who finds her at a support group at her church (which is the victim of some well-earned barbs).  What starts as mostly a cancer story becomes a love story, something else I don't particularly care for in my reading but these two characters are so damned appealing that I couldn't help myself.  I couldn't help but love the story being told.  Hazel's parents and Gus's parents and Isaac from support group who is partially blind from the cancer are all perfect supporting characters and there's a wonderful connection to a book by an author in the Netherlands but I won't spoil with any more information other than to say that every character comes to life, no matter how minor, and everything in the story serves an eventual purpose.  The cancer angle is there throughout -- how could it not be -- but it's not an overwhelming presence, and even your attachment to the characters doesn't quite make you sad about their fate in life because they've accepted it, they are bravely facing it, so you as a reader go along.  As you must.  And John Green's magical writing takes you wherever he wants to.  I couldn't put the book down, I read it in just a few hours over a couple sittings.  And I would suggest that anyone -- even someone turned off by cancer stories or love stories or stories about teenagers or anything else -- would love it too.  Please give it a read.  You won't be disappointed. 

• Buy The Fault in Our Stars

New Moonface!!!!!!!

Is that too many exclamation points?  I don't care.  This has easily been the shittiest past 2 months in my life since like ever and now that I'm walking around again and able to drive (but still in fucking pain) I was out of the house when I read the Pitchfork tweet about a leak of the first song of the forthcoming Moonface album and I really couldn't contain myself (sorry, people at Jiffy Lube!).  And then I got home and took a listen and I'm still freaking out.  Moonface -- for those new to this blog or this planet -- is Spencer Krug's latest band incarnation in the wake of his self-imposed shuttering of Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown, 2 of my favorite 5 bands of all-time.  And Moonface, he announced, would be a catch-all for a bunch of different recordings he'd be making in the coming years.  The first 2 releases -- a 20-minute single-song EP titled Dreamland followed by a full album of five 8+ minute songs that won the Vague Space 2011 album of the year, Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped, were significant departures from his work with WP or SR, heavily organ-based (obviously), more instrumental, no guitars, all keyboards, machine percussion, and a unique but intrinsically thrilling sound that took a while to get into but ultimately was wonderful.  This latest Moonface release -- coming April 17th!!! -- is a collaboration with the Finnish instrumental band Siinai, whose members opened for Wolf Parade years ago when they were in a different band, and it's titled Heartbreaking Bravery.  I don't know anything about Siinai, I might have listened to one or two of their tracks but I tried to keep from hearing too much while I awaited this collaboration, which Spencer promised to be a return to a heavier rocking sound than the previous Moonface records.  And I can confirm that now.  This first track is definitely a rock song.  A beautiful, perfect, stunning, catchy, and way-too-damn-short track.  No slow build like Dreamland or "Fast Peter".  This is instantly full of hooks and roaring guitars and smashing drums and... fucking Spencer's perfect fucking voice.  Just wow.  Fuck.  There's some of what I would call futuristic sound effects layered throughout but it's mostly a straight ahead pop song that doesn't sound at all like Wolf Parade and not really much like Sunset Rubdown and nothing like Moonface to date, but it's wonderful.  Spencer, unsurprisingly, does it again.  And already we have a challenger to Shearwater's "You As You Were" for 2012 song of the year.

You looked so beautiful then.  And you look so beautiful now.

• Download Moonface - "Teary Eyes and Bloody Lips".mp3

Go to Jagjaguwar for more details.  No pre-order up yet.